Daunting AMD

[xazos79]

Hey guys, i'm building a new system. Now up until recently i've been positive that i'm going for a 1.4ghz AMD. But after some poking around in this thread i've soon realised that i'm gonna need a freaking degree in thermodynamics. There's talk of case fans, exhaust areas....what the hell am i building? A car or a computer! Now i'm not going to overclock...so if i get a case designed for an AMD processor is it going to be sufficient? Or am i going to have to take to it with bolt cutters to modify its design?

 

[Matisaro]

If you are not going to overclock then this is what you need, a retail amd 1.4ghz which comes with a perfectly decent fan and heatsink, and 2 CASE FANS, place one case fan in the bottom front sucking air IN, and place the second case fan in the back on top sucking air OUT, this is the optimal simple cooling solution. Most motherboards have places to put fans in the afformentioned areas, so it shouldn't pose a problem.

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[xazos79]

Sounds ok, i'm assuming the case i get doesn't come with these case fans and that cases are designed with case fans in mind?

 

[jc14all]

Don't worry about the cooling. Most of us are pretty anal about performance and go to great lengths to tweak out the last ounce of CPU juice. LOL. I agree with Matisaro, just get a <A HREF="http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/antecsx1240/index.html" target="_new">good case</A> with adequate P/S (400w), very good CPU cooler with cooper based heat sink and some <A HREF="http://www.athlonoc.com/" target="_new">NanoTherm Thermal Paste</A> and you won't have any problems.

JC-------<*){{{>{~~~~~
Fisher of men

 

[Crashman]

At least half of mid towers on the market have places to mount a front and rear fan. This is all the ventilation you need.

Back to you Tom...

 

[Guest]

Like someone said.. most people here exagerate in trying to cool their cpu as much as possible. I am fanatic about trying to make my computer as silent as possible, sacrifising cooling perfomance if I have to. I have an athlon 1.4, its cooled by a Silverado running at 10v. I got loads of additional "intelligent" fans (inlet, hd, vga,..), but basically I only use 1 exhaust fan running at 6v and of course I use a psu that also helps pulling hot air out of the case.

This setup is far from thermodynamically ideal. Its made even worse by the fact I have isolated my case inside with cork. all panels, hard disk bays, even my psu have a 5mm cork plate on them. This helps reduce noise, but of course its not good for cooling.

Anyway, with this far from ideal setup, I get 50° iddle, 59° under load. Many forum users would scream that this is too high, but really, its not a problem. to test, I even shut off all case fans, and did some testing.. my t-bird is even still perfectly stable at 70°c.

Dont worry too much about temps when your not overclocking.. (well, keep an eye on them, but it shouldnt be hard to keep your cpu cooled well under 60, and so you should be fine)

---- Owner of the only Dell computer with an AMD chip

 

[xazos79]

Thanks, and thanks to the others. Makes it more attractive to go for the AMD chip now.

 

[kief]

Most nice cases come with one fan in the front already sucking in air, and a read fan should cost $5 and the case should come with something to hold it into the back. The one I used last was an Enlight 7237, and it did come with a fan and a spot for another in the back. I have a 1400mhz athlon and 2 10000rpm lvd160 scsi drives running in striped mode, along with a bigass hardware raid card and my cpu maxes out at 55C. So since I assume you are not using 10k drives both constantly running a simple solution should be fine.

Jesus saves, but Mario scores!!!

 

[Uncle_joe]

Did yoy check <A HREF="http://www.amd.com" target="_new">AMD website</A>?
They have description of what they consider 'proper case
ventilation'. Basicly, one fan on the back to suck the
air out and PSU with the opening on the bottom to suck
the hot air from HSF.
Just to give you an idea, I have Tbird 1.2 OC @ 1.4,
fan on a back and PSU without hole on a bottom, and under
load temp doesn't go over 55C.



Breaking news: Intel hit by a SledgeHammer! AMD to blame! More in just a moment...

 

[Edison]

You're right about the anal part. I've got a hardware store full of HSF only because of cooling envy. In my zeal to get down to the low 40s of some posters I kept purchasing different units (including at least one no-name unit I wish I had avoided - <g>). Finally I said to heck with it. My 1.4 TB is running at 51C (ambient temp at 23C)and my MB is at 31C. Realistically I don't expect to see low 40C temps with my current setup. I could easily drop 3-5 degrees, but I can't handle the Delta 7k fans. I'll just leave my unit alone and be satisfied that I'm actually running cooler than I did with my 850 Tbird.

"Heatsinks...doesn't everyone collect them?"